Background: Hypertension is a major contributor to various adverse health outcomes. Although previous studies have shown the benefits of home blood pressure (BP) monitoring over office-based measurements, there is limited evidence comparing the effectiveness of whether a BP monitor integrated into the electronic health record is superior to a nonintegrated BP monitor.
Objective: In this paper, we describe the protocol for a pragmatic multisite implementation of a quality improvement initiative directly comparing integrated to nonintegrated BP monitors for hypertension improvement.
Objective: The utilization of video telemedicine has dramatically increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, significant social and technological barriers have led to disparities in access. We aimed to identify factors associated with patient inability to successfully initiate a video visit across a high-volume urologic practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020 created unprecedented challenges in the provision of scheduled ambulatory cancer care. As a result, there has been a renewed focus on video-based telehealth consultations as a means to continue ambulatory care.
Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the change in video visit volume at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Comprehensive Cancer Center in response to COVID-19 and compare patient demographics and appointment data from January 1, 2020, and in the 11 weeks after the transition to video visits.
The field of telehealth is rapidly growing and evolving across medical specialties and health care settings. While additional data are needed, telepalliative care (the application of telehealth technologies to palliative care) may help address important challenges inherent to our specialty, such as geography and clinician staffing; the burden of traveling to brick-and-mortar clinics for patients who are symptomatic and/or functionally limited; and the timely assessment and management of symptoms. Telepalliative care can take many forms, including, but not limited to, video visits between clinicians and patients, smartphone applications to promote caregiver well-being, and remote patient symptom-monitoring programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many hospitals do not have regular access to psychiatry consult services. This is well understood as a common shortage at nonacademic community hospitals (especially in rural environments, and may also be a problem at noncontiguously located smaller hospitals that are affiliated with academic medical centers in urban settings. The authors sought to deliver timely inpatient psychiatric consultation-liaison services via telemedicine to a local but physically separated hospital affiliated with an academic medical center.
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